


Contranym

by writing_addiction



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Aromantic Character, Asexual Character, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Non-binary character, Queerplatonic Relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-12
Updated: 2016-12-22
Packaged: 2018-09-08 02:44:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8827306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writing_addiction/pseuds/writing_addiction
Summary: Erwin had never had a partner like Levi.  (A collection of Eruri short stories.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've been writing around this idea for a while now, but I could never seem to fit everything together into one smooth narrative. So I gave up. This is basically a repository for all my acearo Levi and QPR Eruri feels. I have a few good scenes that are written already and ready to be posted, but after those are done, updates might become irregular.
> 
> I have not read the manga, only watched the anime, so apologies if anything here isn't manga-canon compliant.
> 
> I want to dedicate this work to my lovely friend nolifeinabox, and also to all aro-spec people and those in queerplatonic relationships. You are so rad and beautiful and deserve all the representation. <3

Erwin had never had a partner as fastidious as Levi.  Not that he minded--he knew it was simply Levi’s nature to be so--but there were moments when it struck him as strange.  He knew that his captain insisted upon a high standard of cleanliness, but Erwin thought he took it to something of an extreme at times.  He was standing in front of the wash basin in the corner, and the soft sounds of moving liquid splashing against the sides of its container told Erwin all he needed to know.

"What are you doing?” he asked anyway, standing and closing the distance between himself and Levi.

“Are you blind or something?” Levi quipped, not taking his attention away from his task.

Erwin’s mouth curved upward a bit.  “My mother always warned me that I shouldn't touch myself for that very reason.”  He paused to wait for the sarcastic reply that was sure to follow, but it never came.  He added, “I'm sure your hands are clean now, Levi.  You've washed them three times.”

He noticed a vein in his friend’s temple throbbing as he began scrubbing under his fingernails again.  “Well, if you had warned me in time that you were going to--”  He interrupted himself to groan.  Erwin noted the grimace on his face.  “That was disgusting.”

Erwin said nothing.  He had apologized directly after it had happened, once he'd got his breath back and coaxed Levi down from the edge of a stroke.  He wasn't looking for another apology.  Erwin frowned.  “You don't have to do that for me, you know.  I would rather take the slight risk to my vision than force you to--”

Levi huffed, throwing the wet rag back into the water basin.  “The troops you lead count on your eyesight being sharp.  You shouldn't take such careless risks if you don't want to be Titan chow.”  Levi turned to dry his hands, which put him facing the taller man, and he glanced him up and down instinctively.  The sight made him let out another noise of disgust.  “Put your fucking pants back on, Erwin.”

He couldn't hold back a bemused smile as he complied.


	2. Chapter 2

Neither of them were particularly demonstrative men.  There was no need.  He knew Levi detested public displays of affection, and private ones between them felt largely unnecessary.  Erwin was occasionally motivated to remind Levi that he cared about him and enjoyed his company.  Sometimes Levi brushed such gestures aside; at other times, he returned them.  Erwin never questioned why.

That was just Levi.

Erwin had noticed, though, that he was more likely to need those reminders, and to return the gestures, after they came back from a scouting mission.  Years of working together had trained him to read his captain like an open book, even when he was doing his damnedest not to show emotion.  Levi cared for the people in his squad more than anyone else knew, and although they both recognized that scouting the outside land and killing Titans was necessary, was to the benefit of mankind, it was difficult to lose soldiers, to watch their subordinates be caught by the monsters and eaten alive, ripped apart, limbs carelessly dropped or discarded in favor of new prey.  

It was even more difficult to watch the ones who survived lose their composure and rush headlong back into biting range for an attempt at vengeance.

“Idiots,” he would mutter under his breath.

“Captain Levi, aren't you going to stop them?” someone would ask.  “What if they die?”

“Their own fault,” his reply would be.  “If they're so willing to fly straight into a Titan’s mouth, they're of no use to us.”

Erwin understood, even if no one else did.  But he also understood the ache that every bloody, cloth-wrapped corpse set in one’s chest, the tension it embedded in one’s shoulders.  They couldn't show emotion during missions, or indeed when they returned home.

When it was just the two of them, however, when they were alone in Erwin’s quarters, they could relax somewhat.

After a particularly devastating encounter, Erwin offered to massage his back.  The shorter man said nothing, but he removed his shirts and laid down anyway.  Even from his seated position, Erwin had to bend slightly to reach his neck and shoulders, and at the first firm touch he administered, Levi flinched and made a quiet sound in the back of his throat that wasn't quite a grunt.  Erwin didn't stop, even when his fingers hit a particularly tender knot and Levi cursed at him loudly and choked out a very explicit remark about the possibility of a sexual liaison between him and a Titan.  Erwin rolled his eyes and tried not to laugh.  “Even if Titans were capable of reproducing as humans do,” he replied, “I doubt I am adequately equipped for the task, Levi.”

“You’ll just have to borrow someone from the Merchants Association.  They’re big enough dicks, I’m sure.”

He kept at it, knowing that if he gave the slightest indication of a pause, Levi would ask him to stop.  And he would, and Levi would pretend that his muscles didn't ache the next morning.  Erwin would have done the same thing, shown no weakness in front of the people who counted on their mental stability and physical fortitude to keep them as out of harm's way as was possible in the heat of the moment.

But here, it was safe.  They understood one another.

When he’d finished working the kinks out from under Levi’s skin, Erwin leaned forward and pressed a fleeting kiss to the nape of his captain’s neck.  

Levi's only response was a quiet, “Thanks.”


	3. Chapter 3

Gossip happened.  It was the nature of humans to exchange information about mutual associates, regardless of whether or not that information was completely factual or even based in reality at all.  The habit of idly gossiping was especially rampant among newly graduated cadets.

“Think about it, though!” he overheard one exclaim during a break.  “They say Captain Levi’s the biggest neat freak who ever existed.  And sex is pretty messy, you know, with sweat and come and all that, so--”

“I heard he doesn’t even have a cock,” another one interrupted.  “I heard from a friend in the Military Police that he had a close encounter with a Titan once and--”

“Oh, come on!” one of the women said.  “If you’re  _ that _ close to a Titan, you’re gonna get eaten.  And besides, that’s a pretty precise wound to inflict for a creature that’s 20 times your size.  Why are we talking about this anyway?”

Erwin was about to intercede when Levi suddenly appeared from around a corner.  He was good at that.  He unsheathed his blades and drove them down through the wooden table where the cadets sat.  Most of their food was scattered across the table and hit the ground.  A stunned silence overtook the small group, and they at least had the decency to look guilty.  Levi glared at the two boys for a long moment before yanking his weapons out of the wood.  “At least my balls have dropped,” he said.  “Shame I can’t say the same for you two.  I could get a scalpel from Hange and help the process along if you don’t think you can manage it on your own.”

Erwin barked out the other man’s name, arms crossed as he leaned against a wall.

Levi glanced up at him and nearly stopped himself from rolling his eyes.  But not quite.  Retuning the blades to their holders, Levi walked toward Erwin, backs turned to the gossipers.  “Just so you know,” he continued, waving a hand nonchalantly at his side, “there are more important things to worry about than my dick.  Yours, even.  Can’t get laid anymore if a Titan rips you in half; ever thought of that?”

As they walked away, Erwin tried to hide his amusement with a cough.  “I somehow don’t think Hange would go along with that scheme.”

“Now that I think about it, I probably wouldn’t use one of their scalpels anyhow.  You know how Hange’s things are constantly covered in dirt, grease, or Titan effluvia.  It’s disgusting.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Side note: non-binary Hange continues to be my favorite Hange.


End file.
